Blsa

Dec 17 2010 1:42pm	#1 (permalink)
plowboy33 Anonymous Visitor	When I brough up the sichbopvr software, it didn't find my blsa card. it did find my hauppauge tuner card. I had installed the sa software with my blsa merkin built (he did and outstanding job putting it togather)and it is working fine. Is there something special I have to do for the sichbo to recognize the blsa? Thanks, plow

Dec 18 2010 12:35am

#2 (permalink)

Sichbo

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Hey Plow :) thanks for supporting the project!

The broadlogic tuner board that the blsa sits on doesn't show up in pvr's 'devices list' since it doesn't have a proper bda driver.

Until I can get a driver working, what we do right now is use a secondary Satellite tuner to get to the spectum analyzer dialog, and we also use that second tuner to do any actual tuning. So if your hauppage is a dvbs card, open it up on the settings, add a satellite, then go Finder -> Spectrum Analyzer, select "BLSA over COM1" and you should be good to go. Any actual tuning/frequency tests will need to be done with the second card.

If your hauppauge isn't a DVB-S one (and you don't have another) just give me a yell and I'll see what I can do to at least get the broadlogic board recognised as a device, so that you can get to your spectrum analyzer screen.

Thanks again

- Si

Dec 18 2010 3:53am	#3 (permalink)
plowboy33 Anonymous Visitor	Si. No problem on the support, glad to help out. the hauppauge is a tv tuner so it want work. what dvbs card thats compatible do you recommend. plow

Dec 20 2010 11:52am

#4 (permalink)

Sichbo

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Hey Plow,

Rather than spending more money on gear it'd be best to try get the broadlogic card supported, so I've sent another contact submission to manufacturer for full SDK details. My first one a number of months ago went unanswered so I'm not sure if they're talking to people, or if the company has gone tits up, or what.

If you're really keen on buying a second dvbs card, the Prof 7500 seems to be the most popular. These types of USB cards have a loop-out which could plug into your blsa, and USBs are generally less troublesome and easier to reset than their PCI/PCIe counterparts if things ever go awry (unplug power, plug back in.)

I will post here again in a few days to let you know if I get an answer from the broadlogic folks.

Dec 21 2010 4:53am

#5 (permalink)

Sichbo

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Me again,

No reply from v@box/broadlogic guys, BUT, finally after hours of piss farting around with their driver's installation last night, I've figured out what their documentation is referring to. All of the functions ADPTSE_QueryInterfaceVersion, ADPTSE_RegisterApp, ADPTSE_SetLNBFrequency, etc) are exposed by the a adpsi30.dll sitting in system32 folder -- their api is NOT exposed by their VB2030TS.ax directshow filter, as a hex editor had lead me to believe.

I think now we may be able to get some good use out of these broadlogic boards after all :)

I'm having a play with the sdk today, will let you know how it goes.

Dec 21 2010 11:19am

#6 (permalink)

plowboy33

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Sichbo said:
Me again,

No reply from v@box/broadlogic guys, BUT, finally after hours of piss farting around with their driver's installation last night, I've figured out what their documentation is referring to. All of the functions ADPTSE_QueryInterfaceVersion, ADPTSE_RegisterApp, ADPTSE_SetLNBFrequency, etc) are exposed by the a adpsi30.dll sitting in system32 folder -- their api is NOT exposed by their VB2030TS.ax directshow filter, as a hex editor had lead me to believe.

I think now we may be able to get some good use out of these broadlogic boards after all :)

I'm having a play with the sdk today, will let you know how it goes.

I really appreciate you efforts si, I hope you come up with something. If not I'm gonna wait till the new prof advancetune usb tuner(advancetune 7700 same company as prof, new owner I hear) comes out before I invest in another card thanks, Plow

Dec 22 2010 3:29am

#7 (permalink)

Sichbo

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Sure thing Plow,

Yesterday I had *some* success with the broadlogic. I have it now tuning to frequencies and have enhanced the Spectrum Analyzer tool accordingly, if you want to try out v2.2.11 it has gone up just now. Upgrade is on your Settings screen. You should see "VBox TS Source" come up under devices in this build, and be able to do a spectrum sweep and also "try lock".

But you won't actually be able to read transponder data :(

Where the BL2030 card really drops the ball is in it's implementation of data I/O. I think this card was a bit ahead of it's time, back in the Windows 98 days, before hardware was fast enough to handle a full transponder mux. As such, they didn't provide a way for developers to pull the *entire* TS mux, which is a critical bit of functionality for SichboPVR to be able to work properly.

Instead, the BL2030 requires me to explicitly request individual pieces of data (via things called Packet Identifiers or PIDs.) Which makes it nigh impossible to discover hidden transport streams that are not advertised by the programming tables in the stream. I'm actually still struggling to even get *requested* PID data at this stage, their SDK is missing a few important bits of info which I've scraped by without, but I'm getting error codes which I can't quite decipher when requesting PID data.

I will continue to try at least make it so you can watch regular programming on this card.. not sure when/if it'll be ready, I might be able to have a play with it again tonight.

It actually looks like Merkin and I will be doing Prof's new drivers for them.. I have their blindscan API planned out etc already, we're waiting on prototypes for actual development & testing. I plan on making it to do a sweep (similar to BLSA) and then try lock the "interesting frequencies" all in one command, for reporting AGC levels + locked Frequencies/FECs/Symbol Rates back to client apps. Wise move to wait for their 7700 ;)

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